Rhea hummed in approval as she walked down the winding trail. The number of trees gradually disappeared as walked further down the road. Replacing them were larger swathes of bushes and sprouting flowers. She glanced at the road briefly before her thoughts wandered back to the peculiar stat sheet. Once she met civilization, she would find the answers she was looking for.

First, she needed to erect a monument celebrating her revival in honor of the entity that did it. But it couldn’t be a performance, as that was ephemeral. It needed to be magnificent and stand the test of time. But what could it be? Rhea shrugged and pulled away from those thoughts. It was too soon for something like that, at any rate.

The first step was to connect with society and blend in,which wasn’t very hard for her to do. After all, she was skilled in the art of wearing a mask. The issue was going to be the lack of food, water, and information in the interim. How could she expect to slide into a town with no knowledge of the locals or their customs? Better yet, how could she take time and scout the area out when she had no reliable source of substance? That was going to be an issue, no matter how she tried to paint it. Which put her in a time crunch. While she didn’t feel any sort of hunger or thirst at this second. In time, it would impede her.

The lack of control grated on Rhea’s nerves. Chance was not a reliable mistress. Therefore, control had to be wrought over it, and all the permutations accounted for. Although being in a new place was a blessing, the lack of control over her own life was still frustrating.

She was struggling to grapple with the feeling of helplessness as she wandered down the dirt road. It was becoming more compact with each step she took. Like this was a road well traveled. But there were no lights or electrical poles lining the road. There was no endemic growl of vehicles. Just the silence of nature, and the purity of beauty. The surrounding forest was growing thinner, and the walkway was more expansive. Here the sky was visible and a far deeper blue than earth. The sky, like a freshly polished sapphire, glimmered in the midday sun.

Rhea glanced at the road as she walked, noting how well used it looked. There were dozens of footsteps in the dirt, along with the start of ruts marring the ground. In the distance, she saw an intersection that branched off into the forest. As she neared it, she crouched and glanced at the dirt. It was upturned, and ruts were dug into the ground at an even interval.

A smile twisted at the corner of her lips as she squatted down. Her fingers brushed the small ruts as her mind worked to figure out what they came from. She saw the ruts were deep, showing a well-traveled road. She could also make out what looked to be horse's hooves, so more than likely they were carts. Which was good. That meant this was an active enough area that she will stumble across someone eventually if she remains on it.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

As she touched the ground, her eyes were sweeping the road, following the various footprints. Easily, there were dozens heading down the road to her right. There weren’t as many going in the opposite direction as her, however. Which told her that if she followed to the right, she may come across a town or something. As soon as she came to that conclusion, a single ding sounded off in her mind, almost causing her to jump.

New general skill learned:

Hunter’s Sight: You’ve honed your eyes and sharpened your senses. You can now see minor changes to the land to better suit tracking your prey.

Her eyes lingered on the notification as she tried to make heads and tails of it. That was far more simple than she was expecting. So certain actions lead to skills being earned, and this was nothing strenuous to her. Was it perhaps because she would often track people on Earth? Did that mean she could translate all her various skills into this strange new life? Testing had to be done, of course. But already the possibilities were endless.

Rhea turned her attention back to the well-trodden earth and focused a bit more. This time, her vision seemed to stretch a bit, and everything seemed a little more defined than before. It wasn’t much, but just enough to notice.

As the feeling of mana pouring from her core flooded through her, she noticed the bar marked mana was ticking down at a steady rate. Curious, she let the skill run, and watched it tick down, counting the seconds as they passed.

After five she stopped and turned the skill off, seeing that it ran through ten mana in that time frame. So roughly two mana a second. The cost was steep for what it offered. How quaint. Even so, it would be useful. A hunter always needs to track her prey. She glanced down the roads, straining to listen for anything that may give her clues. But only the sound of birds called out to her and the distant shifting of leaves dancing on a spring breeze.

Here she had to be careful. She knew nothing of the locals, and one wrong move would spell her end. Which would be a shame if it meant giving up this second chance at life. Not when she still had so much time to explore and art to create!

A soft chuckle left her lips as she broke away from the road, choosing instead to hug the tree line. That way, she could slip into the cover of darkness and figure out a plan if the time came. So, she wandered down the forest line, watching the road. The clouds crept in from the opposite direction, laced with dark angry gray. The occasional gust of wind carried with it the distant stench of petrichor and fried ozone.

A storm would complicate things and force her schedule up faster than originally planned. Rhea sucked air through her teeth and the sudden change of plans, and picked up the pace slightly. She did not know how far the nearest town was, so in the interim, she was alone.